civil rights

• Brown v Board of Education


  1951 court case where Oliver Brown, father of black girl Linda Brown, took the board to court as his daughter had to walk too far to get to her underfunded school, despite there being a white school nearby. Oliver Brown helped by NAACP and lost case but appealed and case was sent to supreme court and all judges agreed to end segregation in schools. But some states e.g. Missippi refused
• Little Rock 1957


  Nine African Americans tried to attend Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas, state refused to de-segregate it's schools. Governor Faubus sent National guard soldiers to prevent black students from entering school. Mob greeted them, the nine took governor Faubus to court and won. Eisenhower intervened to make sure nine could attend Central High school
• Montgomery bus boycott


  December 1st 1955 Rosa Parks, secretary of the local NAACP refusing to move from a white only seat at the front of a bus for a white man. She was arrested and jailed. Triggered planned boycott of all city buses, boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. Began on 5 December 1955 and went on for months. African Americans accounted for 75% of the bus company business so the bus company lost money. Protestors received threats and vandalism. Some protesters wanted to get violent after bomb exploded near his house but he believed in non violence to achieve equal rights, he called this method direct action. A year after Rosa Parks refusal, the supreme court announced it's decision to make segregated buses and schools illegal, the next day Rosa and King celebrated by taking the bus together- and sitting at the front
• King made persuasive speeches and appeared in newspaper articles and chat shows. He ironically highlighted the divisions in the so called land of the free
• Dr King became the leader of a new civil rights organisation called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)


  1957
• SCLC

  Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Aim of SCLC

  • To "redeem the soul of America" through non-violent resistance
• After the Montgomery bus boycott ruling to desegregate buses, many states were not obeying
• The Freedom Riders who were part of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) activists deliberately rode on buses in the Birmingham, Alabama and other southern states to highlight this
• The Freedom Riders received some of the worst violence of the civil rights campaign
• 200 Freedom Riders were arrested for 40 days
• The governor of Alabama, Patterson did little to protect the Riders until pressurised by JFK
• Some white people in the north were disgusted by the violence the Freedom Riders faced
• The first sit-in was on the 1st of February 1960, 4 black students sat in the white only areas of their local Woolworths in North Carolina, when asked to leave they remained seated
• The sit-in protest spread to other cities where more black students, sometimes accompanied by white supporters would do the same
• The protestors had food poured on them and 3000 were arrested
• By the end of 1960, lunch counters were desegregated in 126 cities
• The civil rights movement in the 50s grew prominence


  1. School desegregation

  2. The brutal murder of Emmet Till in 1955

  3. The Montgomery bus boycott
• Non-violent protest


  e.g. sit-ins and boycotts
• Direct action


  Use of strikes, demonstrations and public protest instead of violence
• Montgomery bus boycott

  1955
• 1963 March on Washington


  Where he delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech
• Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

  1964
• Assassinated by James Earl Ray

  1968
• Martin Luther King Jr. believed in non-violent protest and direct action
• Martin Luther King Jr. led the Montgomery bus boycott and helped organise the 1963 March on Washington
• in may 1963

  King organised a non-violent protest march in one of the most segragated cities birmingham, alabama

  30 k took part and police chief Eugene 'bull' Conor attacked the protestors with dogs, water cannons, tear gas and batons

  100s were arrested including 900 children- all of this was televised

  JFK sent troops to restore order and ordered the city council to ban segregation, JFK later said that the civil rights movement should 'thank God for bull Conor'
• Black Power was a political, social and cultural movement.

  advocated belief in black pride, self-sufficiency and freedom.

  was another expression of the overall African American struggle for freedom.
• Black Power principles


  Influenced by Malcolm X
• Malcolm X

  • Former minister in the Nation of Islam, a black separatist Muslim organization
  • Changed his name to acknowledge the erasure of his African American identity due to slavery
  • Favored armed self-defense
  • Delivered powerful speeches against segregation, racism, and injustice
• Malcolm X's actions

  1. Left the Nation of Islam

  2. Formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity
• Despite his assassination in 1965, his ideas and legacy persevered
• Civil rights movement


  Made progress towards equality with new civil rights laws
• Economic status for African Americans remained unchanged
• Black Americans had double the national unemployment rate, with poverty and powerlessness still prevalent
• Frustration grew due to the economic gap and racism
• Black Power

  Aimed for solidarity, autonomy, safety, economic power, and pride in heritage
• High-profile supporters of Black Power

  • Boxer Muhammed Ali
  • Olympic athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos
• Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics
• The Black Power salute reached millions worldwide